Category: Our Changing World

Colorado – Not as safe as we thought…

Bobby

Whenever we hear of hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados and other natural disasters, my sister and I always comment about how lucky we are to live in Colorado. We don’t have much of that here.

As you can see from this image, maybe my confidence in this great state is misguided.
Death Map

Susan Cutter and Kevin Borden, of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, analyzed nationwide mortality data from 1970 to 2004. They published a report on Spatial patterns of natural hazards mortality in the United States. According to their report the heat and drought of the the Plains States cause more deaths than the Gulf Coast hurricanes and the California Earthquakes. Who knew?

50 worst cars of all time

Bobby

Time Magazine has an interesting article on their website entitled “The 50 Worst Cars of All Time”

It’s a pretty amusing list. Probably the only caveat I would have is that there is an undercurrent of bad attitude about anything not fuel efficient, and several snide, elitest comments like this one about the 1995 Ford Explorer

In its very success, the Ford Explorer is responsible for setting this country on the spiral of vehicular obesity that we are still contending with today. People, particularly women drivers, discovered that they liked sitting up high. Even though more fuel-efficient minivans do the kid- and cargo-hauling duties better, people came to prefer the outdoorsy, go-anywhere image of SUVs.

If you look at the fuel economy data for 1995, the Explorer only got 2mpg less than a compreable, best selling, Chrysler Town and Country minivan. The writer obviously had an axe to grind, but if you can look past the eco-propaganda, it’s a pretty interesting collection. More info about A1 Garage Door Service by visiting the site.

George Carlin – dead of heart failure

Bobby

Comedian George Carlin died Sunday at age 71.

My earliest memory of Carlin was back in Jr. High. One of my friends had watched his famous “Seven Words That Can Never Be Said on Television” routine. Of course, being kids in a more conservative time, we were totally fascinated that he would say all of these bad words. I still remember having those conversations.

The other significant thing I remember about him was his role in one of my all time favorite movies. He played Rufus, the time traveler in a phone booth in 1989’s classic “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure”.

Carlin was a unique comedian with an interesting outlook on life. We are sad to see him go.

US Treasury discriminates against blind

Bobby

A federal appeals court panel ruled on Tuesday that the United States discriminates against the blind because the country’s paper currency is the same size regardless of a bill’s value.

This ruling, if upheld, could potentially cost the US economy $3.5 Billion in both printing costs and retrofitting of vending machines, supermarket automatic checkouts and any other machine that processes paper currency. Just what we need in a slowing economy and skyrocketing national debt.

Olympic Committe OKs Amputee with Enhancements

Bobby

The Court of Arbitration for Sport, world sport’s highest tribunal, has ruled that 21-year-old South African Oscar Pistorious can run in the Beijing Olympics.

Oscar is a double amputee, born with out fibulas. The controversy here is not if a disabled person should be allowed to compete, but if his Cheetah Flex-Foot prosthetics give him an “unfair advantage” over able bodied runners.

I am completely in favor of Oscar running in the Olympics, even if his prosthetics give him an advantage. What this decision does is further the controversy in athletics on performance enhancing substances (I hesitate to call them drugs since many of them are produced by the human body), medical procedures and prosthetics.

I’m about as likely to run in an Olympic event as a double-amputee. Being 5’6″ tall with a body like a potato pretty much eliminates any possiblity of me being a athlete at that level no matter how hard I trained. Does this make me as ‘disabled’, in relation to athletics, as Oscar? If I could take steroids, have medical procedures and attach prosthetics to my body and trained every day in order to compete would it be OK? If not, why?

Athletic success at a level like the Olympics is not only a matter of training and discipline, but a matter of genetics. If your body is not capable of completing the task, no amount of dedication is going to get you there. A great example of what I’m talking about is the movie Rudy, the story of an undersized, underathletic guy that wanted to play Notre Dame football so bad he dedicated 5 years of his life to it, and got to play in one game. While his tenacity is to be admired, he was not really what anyone would call a successfull football player. Why? Because of genetics.

At what point do we decide what is normal and what is an ‘enhancement’? What if, and I can’t really imagine this, an able bodied runner decided to have his legs amputated in favor of prosthetic limbs that made him run faster? Would this person be allowed to compete? What if an athlete had surgery that allowed him to perform at a higher level? With this ruling, the lines of what is an acceptable modification in an athlete has been further blurred and a controversy that is already at the forefront of popular culture has been extended.

Compact Flourescent test results

Bobby

Back in January I posted an article about CFL lights. I decided to run a test, replacing 6 of 7 light bulbs with cfls.

I’m happy to announce, the results are in. All 6 of the CFLs I installed are still burning brightly, but last week the lone incandescent burnt out. Obviously, this isn’t a perfect test, maybe I will run it again. I still have some incandescents, I think I will replace the burnt out bulb today with a new one and see if it lasts longer than the cfls.

The interesting thing would be to see if I can establish how long the bulbs last, and compare the costs with them. This CFL Savings Calculator, with it’s default settings, shows a savings of $0.44/month or $8.86/year for each CFL bulb. It would be interesting to see if my data supports that. If their numbers are accurate, and I have about 20 bulbs in my home, the total savings would be around $175/year. That’s not a huge amount of money, but worth doing.

The Finest is for sale

Bobby

The Finest music stores are for sale. The Finest, which has been in business for over 35 years, has suffered a severe decline in business and owner Jim Risser is looking to sell.

Personally, I find this yet another blow to my lost youth. While I am one of the guilty parties, and haven’t purchased anything from The Finest in some time, I still have fond memories. My first experience with The Finest was back at Milliken Middle School. When we took field trips, or went to other events, they were often held at UNC. The most convenient place to feed a bunch of middle school kids was the McDonalds on 8th Ave. In those days, the finest was just a couple doors down from McDonalds, so we would sneak over there after scarfing down a burger to check the place out. At the time, I was a very sheltered child, only listened to Christian or Country music. I distinctly remember Kristy Alexander was just starting to turn into a real punk girl. She was listening to bands like Skinny Puppy or the Dead Milkmen. I was both fascinated and appalled by this music, and The Finest seemed to be a dark, dangerous place of forbidden delights.

As my music tastes expanded I spent many hours and hundreds of dollar perusing the collections in The Finest and other used music stores that have since went by the way. Unfortunately, the responsibility of adult life, the fact that I now have an extensive music collection and the convenience of acquiring new music online has reduced my visits to the store.

I certainly hope that Jim can find a buyer that will be able to keep The Finest name alive, and find a way to bring continue it on, but even if he doesn’t The Finest will live on in the memories of thousands like me.